RALEIGH, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes certainly aren’t a team with a large margin for error.

Entering their Wednesday night contest in Philadelphia against the Flyers, which was postponed by the winter storm, they ranked just 24th in the 30-team NHL with 2.42 goals per game and were a middle of the pack 18th — just behind Philly — in goals allowed per game with 2.79. So it’s easy to see why the Hurricanes are seventh in the eight-team Metropolitan Division, and seventh in the wild card race for the final two postseason berths.

However, it’s just as easy to see how weekends like the one Alexander Semin just put together in Raleigh could close what currently is just a three-point gap from seventh to second in the wild card race and push the Hurricanes to an unlikely spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

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“He’s proven in the league how good he can be and the type of plays he can make,” star Carolina forward Eric Staal said of Semin.

“When any offensive guy is feeling it or finding those areas, he’s a threat. Every time he had the puck in the offensive zone, you know the other team is conscious of what he’s doing. But it starts with the detail part of the game, and it starts with hard work. From there, you get rewarded with the other stuff.”

Jim Rutherford, the team’s long-time general manager, surely is happy that he’s finally getting rewarded for signing the Russian winger to a five-year, $35-million contract this offseason. Heading into the Hurricanes weekend set of games against the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, Semin had scored just six goals and didn’t seem to be the same player he was just last season, when he was a point-per-game player while on a one-year deal.

Rutherford was critical of Semin — who was stunningly left off the initial Russian Olympic roster due to his lackluster play until being named as an injury replacement on Tuesday — in an interview with local television station WTVD.

“He came off a great year, and we are all very disappointed with his production at this time. He’s a guy who is paid to score goals and put up points, and he hasn’t done that. He’s trying to play an east-west game when the rest of the team is playing a north-south game, and he needs to get his act going pretty soon...I do think it’s the focus and the will to do well. The same will to do well that he had in his contract year. He is probably the most skilled player on this team, and when he wants to play, he can do it. He needs to start.”

A one-time 40-goal scorer with the Washington Capitals, the 29-year-old sniper appeared to have finally turned a corner over the weekend, recording his first multi-goal game of the season on Saturday in a win against Florida, and potting another tally in their Sunday loss against Tampa Bay, marking the first time he’d scored in back-to-back games all year.

“We’re going to be in a lot of tight games,” said Hurricanes head coach Kirk Muller.

“We talked about how we’ve got to play in these tight games and have confidence. There are guys that are gamebreakers and can score that key goal, and we have them in our lineup. We need them in these big games coming up, and (Saturday) it was ‘Sems’ getting the big goals at the right time. When your top guys do that, that’s the extra little tool or weapon that you have and you can use, and you need it to make the difference of two points or one point some nights.”

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Tampa Bay Lightning rookie defenseman Mark Barberio had let his long, black hair grow for two years, but conceded that it had started to get a little out of control. So he’d made a bet with his teammates that if he were to score a goal — he came into Sunday’s contest with no goals in his first 31 games — that he’d finally cut it.

Barberio scored twice in Raleigh, and joked that while he wouldn’t be going to extremes and shaving his head because he got two, he hoped that he’d be able to possibly do something for charity with his long locks.

“I’ll consult with my teammates and see what they think, but it’s got to go. I made a promise,” Barberio said through a smile.

Hair aside, Barberio’s performance was an important one. With the team’s top defenseman, Victor Hedman, day-to-day after getting hit in the leg with a shot, gritty forward Nate Thompson told The Trentonian about the importance of the young blueliner making an impact.

“He’s a young guy and he’s kind of been in and out of the lineup,” Thompson said. “You can see his game kind of continuing to get better. He’s improving and continuing to make good plays. Whenever there’s an injury, and especially when a guy like ‘Heddy’ goes down, we need guys to step up and we need guys to maybe not fill that role, but take on a bigger role.”